Aublysodontinae Nopcsa 1928

SUBFAMILY AUBLYSODONTINAE Nopsca, 1928

These small, lightly built tyrannosaurids differ from more advanced tyrannosaurs in that the front teeth are unserrated. Their snouts are also distinctive, having low nasals and a sharp triangular profile. And their lower jaws are slender. But they were big-game hunters nonetheless—all, except perhaps for a tiny theropod from the Late Cretaceous of Mongolia whose snout Andrei Elzanowski is studying. It looks aublysodont to me, but it has conical piercing teeth for hunting insects and very small vertebrates. Another unanswered question is whether their very short forelimbs had only two fingers. Not quite enough is known about these theropods to do a skeletal restoration yet, but we can describe them as basically small, sharp-snouted tyrannosaurs with an upturned dentary tip.